FFXIII held back in US/EU - Confirmed!

[galperi1]

Just saw this over at gamespot and straight from Nomura's mouth.... see the bolded section below...

Man I hate MS... we are going to be waiting till 2010 in the US because of the payoff by MS.

TOKYO--Today at its DK Sigma3173 Event, Square Enix made a series of announcements, including revealing the March release of a Final Fantasy XIII demo. However, those on hand were also impressed by a video shot by series designer Tetsuya Nomura which offered some raw behind-the-scenes insights into the game's development.

The video started off with an inside look at Square Enix's internal studio and its overall development environment. However, the scene quickly switched to a meeting where developers spoke bluntly about Final Fantasy XIII in general--and the Xbox 360 version in particular. The game's announcement was a major surprise at the E3 Media & Business Summit last month, where producer Yoshinori Kitase held a roundtable--but left many questions unanswered.

In the video, director Motomu Toriyama didn't beat around the bush when Nomura asked him questions about the 360 FFXIII. Starting off, he reconfirmed that, "We haven't changed the direction of the development. We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later." That means that since the game will be released simultaneously on both platforms in North America and Europe, the PS3 release will be held back in those territories until the 360 version is complete.
Furthermore, Toriyama also revealed that, as of July 29, his team hasn't yet received the tools needed to begin work on the Xbox 360 version of FFXIII. "I'm telling them to not think about the Xbox 360 right now," he said. "We can think about it after the development kits arrive."

The designer also reassured PS3 owners that the game's quality would not suffer due to the 360 port. "We aren't going to change any specifications [of FFXIII] because of the multi-platform announcement," he declared. "Right now, we're fully concentrating on the PS3 version."

Nomura and Toriyama also debunked rumors that a PC version of FFXIII is in development. They explained the confusion arose from a misunderstanding when producer Yoshinori Kitase mentioned at E3 that Square Enix is working on a PC project. "We've always been developing on PCs," laughed Nomura. "In fact, I've been doing so since Final Fantasy VI."

Judging by the video, development on FFXIII seems to be in full swing, and the remaining character designs are on schedule to be finalized in October. The voice cast has already been chosen, and it will be partially announced at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, also in October.

Unfortunately, a playable FFXIII demo is unlikely to be at TGS 2008, which is Japan's biggest game expo. In the video, the developers openly complained when talking about the bonus demo disc that'll come with the Blu-ray disc of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in March. Considering how long it takes to mass-produce it onto Blu-ray discs, Square Enix must finish the demo by December in order to ship it out with the computer-animated film.

Luckily, the wait looks like it will be worth it, as Toriyama promised the demo will be quite large. Though he didn't divulge many details, he mentioned that the demo takes place a little bit before the game's current trailers, with a vast and complex three-dimensional map.

[PoLskA]

this is old news dude...

we knew of this since E3...

[galperi1]

Originally Posted by PolskAltima

this is old news dude...

we knew of this since E3...

to be fair there were contradictory statements on both sides on what would really happen. Now it really is confirmed that Square will sit on it....

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Very interesting topic about the demo but I'm not getting any younger!!!!!!

[Terjyn]

It'll be lucky if it comes out in 2010. Don't be surprised if it ends up 2011.

Of course, any "real fan" will be thrilled that FF13 will reach more people. /snicker.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Geez, Why so long?! I've never had to wait this long just for a video game; whether its good or bad. This waiting game is ridiculous!

[AliceT]

Im sure it will be out by end of 09. Since its being developed on a PC, they can port it quickly. Sure, it will be out later than it should have, but its going to sell regardless of when it comes out.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

I can't wait til FF XIII releases. All retail stores will be a slaughter house with plenty of pushing, shoving, biting, farting, shitting, etc. This will be a repeat of the PS3 and Wii Launch.

[bluearth]

Why all the long faces? More people will get to play FFXIII now.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by AliceT

Im sure it will be out by end of 09. Since its being developed on a PC, they can port it quickly. Sure, it will be out later than it should have, but its going to sell regardless of when it comes out.

European Localization has historically taken Square-Enix ages.

Not only are they delaying for 360, they are trying make the European release close to the NA release.

I'd love to be wrong, but pure guess would be:

Demo: March '09
Japan: Late '09
Rest of the World: Late '10/Early '11

[Elandyll]

The quote of the OP is from

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6195345...stnews;title;0

and like I suspected, nothing concerning the actual situation of the release between Japan and NA/Eu is actually adressed by S-E themselves.

Read again, the bolded part is GAMESPOT's INTERPRETATION, -NOT- A DIRECT QUOTE OF A SPEECH BY S-E.
In the end, FFXIII might be delayed until the 360 version is ready, or it might not be. The actual quotes say nothing of the sort, only Gamespot's interpretation does.

Comparison for the sceptics:
Actual Quote: "We haven't changed the direction of the development. We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later."
Gamespot's interpretation: That means that since the game will be released simultaneously on both platforms in North America and Europe, the PS3 release will be held back in those territories until the 360 version is complete.

Therefore the title of this thread is wrong.
Nothing is "confirmed" from those quotes, it is only Gamespot playing guesstimates.

[Heart_Collector]

So there's a whole other presentation tonight? I'll be checking this thread when I get home from work in the morning.

[Mikeblu]

me smells LOTS of japanese imports

[L or S of Perfect?]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

The quote of the OP is from

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6195345...stnews;title;0

and like I suspected, nothing concerning the actual situation of the release between Japan and NA/Eu is actually adressed by S-E themselves.

Read again, the bolded part is GAMESPOT's INTERPRETATION, -NOT- A DIRECT QUOTE OF A SPEECH BY S-E.
In the end, FFXIII might be delayed until the 360 version is ready, or it might not be. The actual quotes say nothing of the sort, only Gamespot's interpretation does.

Comparison for the sceptics:
Actual Quote: "We haven't changed the direction of the development. We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later."
Gamespot's interpretation: That means that since the game will be released simultaneously on both platforms in North America and Europe, the PS3 release will be held back in those territories until the 360 version is complete.

Therefore the title of this thread is wrong.
Nothing is "confirmed" from those quotes, it is only Gamespot playing guesstimates.

What was originally said at e3? I thought it was simultaneous releases? or is it just the fact that there will be a 360 version?

[coralfangs]

It kinda sucks and I hate MS even more.
Sure, more people can play the game and it doesn't bother me at all because I have both systems. It sucks because we have to end up waiting a year or two longer for stupid business decisions (seriously, when we are talking about technology, it's just a dumb idea to wait one extra year *no way they can port the system in a couple of months*, do you think gears of war or uncharted would have the same impact if it were to be released one year later with the same content? the graphics or physics would prolly be significant outdated comparing to other new releases)
I just hope that SE goes bankrupt over this.

[Clark Kent]

So this is what Microsoft paid for. I don't think Microsoft really thinks FFXIII is going to be a big 360 seller(it simply doesn't fit the Xbox demographic), but pushing back the release date of the American PS3 version is what this is all about. Microsoft feared this release would push many of the PS2 only users(which still number in the millions) to buy a PS3. Congratulations, your money Microsoft has saved you from a crippling defeat this generation.

[air_max]

does this mean Kingdom Hearts 3 will be delayed even more? I was under the impression that the reason we haven't heard any updates about this game was because square wanted to get FFXIII out of the way.

[tru2blu707]

i say everyone boycotts square. in the end, were the ones giving them millions of dollars. how about if we dont give them anything.

[Terjyn]

Originally Posted by air_max

does this mean Kingdom Hearts 3 will be delayed even more? I was under the impression that the reason we haven't heard any updates about this game was because square wanted to get FFXIII out of the way.

The Kingdom Hearts team is the team working on Final Fantasy XIII vs(and presumably Kingdom Hearts DS and PSP), so I don't think any of this impacts Kingdom Hearts 3, at least not directly.

[ToonyLoons]

Well, since games are region free, if the Japanese version of the game has the language of your choice on the disc, then you could import that version of the game. So if you really cannot wait and the Japanese version hits first, you still have a choice.

Only negative thing about that is that it would boost Japan's sales and be less for other territories making it seem that MS had a larger impact then it actually did.